What are you selling, really?

If you're a creative business or cultural enterprise, you are selling goods or services to customers, whether it's graphic design, fashion, architecture, music, or books.

But what are you selling, really?
Or to put it another way, what is it that the customer is really buying from you?

It's often the case that there is a difference between what you think you are selling and what the customer is actually buying. Customers are often buy into a lifestyle, a feelgood factor, or a 'story'.

The most aware businesses fully understand what the customer is buying from them.

For example, Tom Peters quotes the Harley Davidson executive who said: "What we sell is the ability for a 43 year old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him." A naive observer might think they sell motorbikes.

In the cultural sector, London's Victoria and Albert museum researched customers' views and recognised that one of the greatest attractions of the museum was its cafe. What visitors want is to see some of the exhibits (it's too overwhelmingly big to see everything) and to have some tea and cake with friends. Controversially and bravely, Director Elizabeth Esteve-Coll adopted the marketing slogan "An Ace Caff with quite a nice Museum attached." It's not what the Museum is supposed to be about - but it's exactly how many visitors see it.

Dialog Ltd, in Hong Kong, run a project called Hope Tees which designs and manufactures t-shirts to raise money for worthy causes. The customer is buying much more than a simple garment: they are investing in hope. Hope for the disadvantaged communities the project supports. The customer might never wear the t-shirt, but the feel-good factor they take away makes the investment excellent value for money.

In his book Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff, Mark Hughes tells the story of Miller Lite. Research found that the appeal of this low calorie beer to heavy drinkers was not its low calories at all (most were proud of their beer bellies), but the fact that it didn't "fill them up" as much as regular beer - so they could drink more and stay in the bar longer.

From my own experience of working in international book distribution and marketing, I know that many books are bought not [only] to be read, but as interior decoration or as a symbol of cultural sophistication. That's not me being philistine - it's [at least part of] how real customers think and behave.

The point is that in the creative industries, just as in other business sectors, we must learn to look at things from the point of view of customers, because it brings new insights which might be subtly (or radically) different from our perspective as the creator of our goods or services. We need to understand the customer benefits in the way the consumer sees them.

So what are you selling, really?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could see our businesses through the eyes of customers? Or, as Robert Burns wrote:
“Oh, that God the gift would give us
To see ourselves as others see us.”

To what extent are they buying into a lifestyle, a feelgood factor, or a story?

The answer, as so often in marketing, is to Ask the Customers! (Market research doesn't have to be expensive.) Go and talk to them, observe them and watch how they actually use your product or service.

You might be surprised...

Copyright © David Parrish. 2007. Some rights reserved.
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